When starting a company, don't count on anyone but yourself.
egoist.blogspot.com
egoist.blogspot.com
A startup founder has to rely on people other than themselves. They rely on at least their customers. Many, including Chrometa, rely on partners and employees as well.
The difference is that you have successfully sold the promise of the company to your current customers and your partners and employees. With the other partners or aides, you have not made a compelling offer.
There are two major reasons why this could happen.
1. Sell side. Your pitch was not sufficiently compelling, or you were not ready to deliver on your promise.
2. Buy side. You're not selling it to the right person at the right time.
The overarching reason is that you were unable to establish an exchange of value. That happens. It will get easier once you build your company up. Eventually your company becomes 'magnetic.' It will attract interest rather than you having to persuade others.
But yes, you will have to hustle.
The mistake I made in our early days, and one that I still see amongst early-stage entrepreneurs (of course always easy to see in hindsight!) is that they put too much weight in how much somebody else can help their venture, particularly in those embryonic stages.
Let me pick on myself here, which is pretty easy to do. I had a lot of misconceptions about what made startups successful. I thought that building a great advisory board could take you to the promised land. I thought finding the right angel/VC could do it.
Which goes back to #1 that you point out above - the sell side - in the very early stages of Chrometa, my sell side value prop was not strong enough. You hit the nail on the head.
Hence, I wasted a lot of time trying to "sell" potential partners and such - when I should have been focused internally. These people were kind enough to take a meeting, and kind enough to act interested - that wasn't their fault, it was mine.
I got a little fired up here - partners are of course important. What I learned early on perhaps is don't get your hopes up on partnering before you've got your own house in order.
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Don't count on anyone's website either! :-)